Lynn Hoppes and How to make money blogging: CMA 2010

Lynn Hoppes of ESPN, I will say, had great points about blogging in general. Pick a topic you love. Get really good at it. Be unique. Sell ad space.

I totally understand his points – you have to want to be the best to be the best. You have to work hard to be the best before you’re hired as the best. Etcetera, etcetera.

I was just overwhelmingly disappointed with his constant name-dropping and self-promotion. I guess you kind of have to do that in the blogging world, but it made the session somewhat dull. Even I, who write entertainment almost literally every week, got tired of listening to how he can call up Dwayne Wade or Jessica Simpson (I can’t remember who he referenced specifically, but you get the gist) at any point of any day and chat, or play golf, or go to lunch with.

The motivation behind all of this was that Hoppes wanted to tell us to make connections and network. He also told us to be brash (in a good way) and bold (still good) and confident enough to find the story. And to build a niche where no one else has one. With a little luck, he said, everything should fall into place and you’ll be making money off of a blog in no time.

The session just tended to stray too much from the original topic of making money, which I hopefully will accomplish in my lifetime, to things that Hoppes accomplished in his lifetime, and not so much any help to me.